Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

I was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1967. I loved to read—I was the sort of kid who would skip recess to go talk with my school librarian—but I didn’t know any writers, and I didn’t think it was the sort of job I could have. I loved chemistry, too, and I majored in chemistry in college. I was lucky, though, to go to Smith, a liberal arts school where I was encouraged to learn everything that interested me, and I took lots of writing classes, and, fortunately, a class on children’s literature taught by none other than Newbery medalist Patricia MacLachlan. She and Jane Yolen, who ran a writer’s group nearby, encouraged my very early (and very bad!) efforts.

I married my high-school sweetheart, and he started medical school. For awhile I worked as a research chemist and wrote stories late at night and on weekends. But I realized I really wanted to be a writer. By the time I was pregnant with our son I was getting enough freelance and ghostwriting jobs that I could quit being a chemist. A few years later, my husband finished his training to become an eye surgeon, and we moved so he could join a practice in Bristol, Tennessee. I was pregnant with my second child, our daughter, and my first book, Ruthie’s Gift, was under contract. It was a pretty exciting time.

Now my children are mostly grown. My husband and I are still in Bristol, where we live on a 52-acre farm with an assortment of horses, a dog, and way too many cats. We love to travel, and I especially love learning about history from all over the world. My most recent book, Fighting Words, is my eighteenth published book. I am so grateful that I get to spend my life doing what I love to do.

I use she/her/hers pronouns.